How To Create A Stay At Home Mom Schedule That You’ll Actually Stick To
It’s 3 p.m. and you’re still in your pajamas, you may have eaten one meal at this point. Your coffee is cold, the dishes have been in the sink for days, and the laundry sits in a massive pile in the living room just waiting for you to fold it. “What happened to my day? Where did the time go?” you say to yourself as you rush around for the next few hours trying to make up for the lost time. No one ever told you that you need a stay at home mom schedule. No one told you how to make one either! All that is modeled for you is the “perfect” influencer mom and that seems so far away and unattainable from where you are now. Maybe you don’t even want that life, but you feel pressured to have it because it has become what everyone is striving for.
I’ve been there. I stared at my phone screen and cried because I hadn’t brushed my hair in days and everyone else seemed to have it together. I failed, or so I thought. As it turns out, your worth remains regardless of what your house looks like AND most of those Instagram accounts aren’t their true reality. I talk more about worth here.
For those of you stay at home moms who are truly lacking structure in your day-to-day and WANT a schedule, allow me to guide you through the steps I took to create one for myself. This is how I gained freedom and control of my day while still prioritizing time for myself. If this works for you too, great! If not, tweak and adjust this to serve you and your family best.
Assessment
Anytime you try something new, I suggest to start with an assessment. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been approached by clients who are frustrated with their 1 to 2-year-olds because they won’t nap when they want them to. The truth is, there is little influence you can have on a baby’s circadian rhythm that wouldn’t affect their development. Their schedule will change time and time again. We have to be prepared to pivot and change with their growth, not to try to control our kids and adjust them to what society says they need to do. You need to take inventory of your life, the ages of your kids, and their needs and see how you can create intentional time to take care of each one well.
Establish What You Want And Need
Mom needs time to herself, she needs time to read, study, meditate, pray, and practice self-care. As I said before, there is a degree in which you cannot change your kid’s schedules, this is a season in which you have to skill up in pivoting and planning and create a stay at home mom schedule around them.
I get up at 6 a.m. every morning and have about 1 to 1 and a half hours of quiet time. I use this to read the bible, get ready for the day, listen to music, stretch, and get started on the right foot. Ask yourself, am I sleeping 7 to 9 hours per day? Am I staying up late scrolling on my phone? If I get up earlier and slowly enter into my morning rather than rushing around to get a crying baby, how would that improve the tone of our days?
Non-Negotiables
Laundry, dishes, diapers, baths, food, and things of this nature. Take inventory of what is your responsibility and what is delegated to your children and spouse. Do these things need to be done daily? Would meal prepping for the week be helpful, or do you enjoy cooking and would prefer to do it more often? It is so important to find joy and gratitude in the services we do as a stay at home mom. When you find something you enjoy, soak it in! Allow yourself to love it and look forward to it.
The things you don’t like as much? No worries. Be grateful that you have plenty of clothes for yourself and your children, and knock the laundry out quickly! I wouldn’t suggest trying to do laundry once a week, the giant pile personally overwhelms me, but doing it daily or every other day helps me stay in control of the size of the pile, and it feels like it takes less time to put behind me!
What does the work schedule for you or your spouse look like? Are you a one or two income household? Do you go to work or need to add a work from home block into your stay at home mom routine? Spacing out intentional time for work and play will yield productive work sessions and beautifully intimate time with your kids
If you are homeschooling:
There is so much flexibility and freedom in homeschooling and sometimes that can be paralyzing because you don’t know where to start. I will not tell you what is best for your family, but I will give you a few things to consider:
- What time is the most quiet? (When do my youngest children nap?)
- How long does each child take with their studies? (Homeschooled children have the freedom to finish their lessons sooner than the standard 8 hours, or longer depending on what they need. Each child may need a different amount of time to complete their work.)
- When are we least likely to be interrupted, or the least amount of interruptions? (Doctors appointment, co-op meeting, piano lesson, or other obligation)
Use these questions to consider when it is best for your kids to complete their work.
Variables And When To Pivot
The baby may be dropping a nap, you could be potty training a toddler, or an older child just started piano lessons. There may be a doctor’s appointment, you may be hosting guests, or someone has a friend over. There are a million reasons why you may need to pivot or change directions in your previously put-together stay at home mom schedule.
Mama, I’ll tell you this and I want you to HEAR me when I say it, pivoting or moving something to another time does NOT make you a failure! Doing the dishes in the morning instead of at night when they were scheduled does not make you a failure! Pivoting means that you have taken the time to plan accordingly and you are allowing the plan to deviate according to the day. Taking care of a sick little one instead of cleaning the nasty bathroom is NOT a failure! You are doing what you need to do to take care of your family. This is an awesome opportunity to practice gratitude. How great is it that you can be home with your sick baby, or that you have the freedom to go to whatever appointment you have? What an amazing time for you and your spouse to practice your communication skills surrounding household chores.
Personalizing Your Stay At Home Mom Schedule
You have assessed, you know what you want, NOW let’s take a moment and design it. Let’s put pen to paper!
How to break it up
There are two ways to create a stay at home mom schedule that you will stick to. You can create a very detailed schedule, or you can create a “Time Block” schedule. Check out the examples I created below.
Schedule Format
Schedules are detailed and are very helpful for stay at home moms with older children, or children who are on a strict schedule that only changes every few months or so. The reason why I say this is because it can be really overwhelming to change a schedule every single day, so you can use this method if your family is in a consistent season and you all can stick to something for a few months at a time. They can be rounded to the half hour like I used in the example below, to the quarter hour, or the minute. It is up to you to design the schedule! This is an example of one below.
6-6:30am: Morning “get ready” routine
6:30-730am: Morning Prayer/Self Care/Study Time
7:30-10:00am: Kids’ morning routine and playtime
10-10:30am: Breakfast and cleanup
10:30-12:00pm: Homeschooling/More playtime
12-2:00pm: Lunch, baby nap, and afternoon break
2-3:30pm: Outside time
3:30-5:00pm: Mom’s work block and dinner prep
5-7:00pm: Dinner and evening routine with the children
7-8:00pm: Clean the kitchen and evening routine
8-10:00pm: Quality and relaxation time with the husband
10:00pm: Lights out!
Time Blocks
Time blocks are handy for moms of infants or children with ever-changing schedules. When you have a small child that is growing and developing at a rapid rate, their naps, mealtimes, and needs can vary day by day. To use time blocks, you assign tasks to a certain part of your day and initially complete them in no particular order. The more often you complete your time blocks, you’ll find a rhythm that works best for each of them and you will organically form a routine. I’ll show an example of time blocks below.
Morning: 6am to 10am
- Wake up and get ready for the day
- Breakfast
- Walk
- Prayer
- Playtime
Mid-Morning: 10am to 1pm
- Nap time
- Lunch
- Reading block
- Self care
Afternoon: 1pm to 5pm
- Work block
- Homeschooling/Playtime
- Playtime
- Dinner prep
Evening: 5pm to 10pm
- Cook dinner
- Clean the kitchen
- Bedtime routine
- Quality time with my husband
- Night Prayer
Customize Your Choice!
The examples above are my two suggestions of how to create a stay at home mom schedule that you will actually stick to. You can add this to pretty stationary and hang it on your bathroom mirror if that’s your jam, or you can scribble it out and put it on the fridge. Just make sure you have it somewhere you can view it throughout the day.
While you are creating this and trying it out, do not be afraid to pivot and change your mind! If exercise in the morning just isn’t working, move it to the evening! If you need more self-care time, make it happen. You have complete control of your day and you can create something that will help you succeed in your goals at home! Your schedule is just as important as anyone else’s, don’t allow yourself to be put down. You’ve got this, mama!
Until next time,
Audye
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